The Unprecedented Newbie Has Arrived!
The greatest newbie entrance ever!
Through the carriage window loomed the massive tower. It looked like something out of medieval Europe, a place I had never visited in my entire life. The streets were packed with people wearing carefree expressions beneath a distinctly medieval atmosphere.
I watched the sun-drenched city rattle past from inside the shaking carriage and thought back to what had just happened. The guard who had come running up to me had delivered a very simple message.
“The lord wishes to see you.”
The master of the neutral city of Cromwell wanted to meet a fledgling explorer who had only arrived three days ago. He had even sent a carriage with orders to bring me quickly.
It was all so sudden that I wondered if he had some hidden scheme in mind. But then the system window popped up.
Special Mission
📍 Objective: Make contact with the Lord of Cromwell and receive the mission briefing.
🎁 Reward: ???
Seeing a dedicated quest like that, I could safely discard any scenario involving “the lord and the adventurer’s messy affair.” Whenever the system presented something as a special mission, it was always something the Tower of Dimensions considered important.
That meant the task would be far more difficult than simply climbing the tower, but the rewards should be equally generous.
At least an A-rank reward, right?
The Eternal Tower didn’t have an official ranking system. It only gave vague descriptions like “crude iron sword” or “crude club.” The early players, starving for information, had created their own arbitrary tiers.
C-rank was decent commercial-grade equipment. B-rank referred to items with blessings or magic effects. A-rank and above were powerful enough to be called holy relics or family heirlooms.
My own absurd armor and Excalibur would qualify as super S-rank, but hoping for anything like that on the lower floors was pure luxury. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to handle a quest with such insane rewards anyway.
Still, an A-rank reward would be welcomed by anyone. Even skills and traits were considered A-rank under the player-established system.
…Which meant that completing this special mission could net me a new trait or skill.
For a newbie like me, this was an offer I had to accept with both hands wide open.
At least I was thrilled. But—
“Why the hell is the other side doing this?”
The carriage jolted and bounced over every cobblestone, and I endured it all with nothing but my sturdy backside. I frowned slightly while organizing my thoughts.
Even when I had reached the top of the tower in a previous run, I had never been summoned by the Lord of Cromwell. From the mid-floors onward, I had joined large-scale missions, but characters on the lower floors were trash no matter how much an old veteran raised them.
He might be called a lord, but he was essentially the king of this city. What could he possibly want from a total beginner?
It wasn’t just me. No other players had probably been called by the lord either. Yeah, that had to be it.
So why was he sending a carriage to escort me?
Am I actually that amazing right now? Have I become such an incredible person that the Tower of Dimensions is shocked and the lord is panicking?
Heh heh heh—.
I stifled my laughter so the driver wouldn’t hear and began setting my own standards. Even if it was only a lower-floor quest, I needed to decide where to draw the line, what rewards to demand, and set a minimum baseline before negotiating.
Even if I held the advantage, I had to know when to refuse. That was how proper negotiations worked. After a few rounds of push and pull, a crude iron sword could become a ridiculously good iron sword. Push a few more times and… well, it might just turn into Excalibur.
The ordinary iron sword at my waist was no weapon for someone as incredible as me. Yes. During this negotiation I would get an A-rank weapon, a skill, a trait, and in the end the Lord of Cromwell would cling to me, begging me to accept the mission…
When I arrived at the lord’s castle, the old steward greeted me with a truly regretful expression.
“I’m terribly sorry you came all this way, but the lord has suddenly been called away on urgent business…”
“Ah.”
Completely caught off guard, I widened my eyes and glared at the steward. He had sent a carriage to summon me and now he was pulling this kind of trick? Was he trying to play hardball with me? Are you kidding me right now?!
“Ahem. Of course, I have been tasked with delivering the mission. Will that be acceptable?”
My hand had been inching toward the sword at my waist, but I froze. There was no point causing a bloodbath in the cunning lord’s castle before I received my reward. My Excalibur, my insane skills, my SSS-rank trait… Yeah, I could listen first.
With a blade hidden in my heart, I began to receive the mission briefing from the steward.
Heavenly Slaughter Star
If anything goes wrong, I’m counting on you…!
Jason, son of the Cromwell Explorer Guild Master, was a talented explorer who took after his father. He had steadily climbed the floors since he was fifteen, and now, three years later at eighteen, he had already reached the tenth floor!
…Of course, he knew the truth. Compared to the explorers summoned from other worlds, a native resident like himself was actually quite slow. But in exchange he had learned swordsmanship properly and could even use “magic power,” something impossible for most explorers in Cromwell.
At the very least, among his peers in the lower-floor neutral city of Cromwell, his talent was overwhelming.
I’m strong.
It was only natural that Jason’s shoulders rose with heightened self-esteem. If his father hadn’t noticed the arrogance filling his son’s lungs, Jason might have gone to the tenth floor alone and died long ago.
The guild master was proud of his son’s talent but worried about the boy’s recklessness. He couldn’t simply let him go, so he had come to the lord’s castle to request an elixir. In Cromwell the lord was essentially a king, but Jason’s father, as guild master, was also one of the city’s most powerful figures. A small elixir for his only son should be easy to obtain.
Having heard this, Jason—who had accompanied his father to the castle—now carried his already high nose and shoulders so high they seemed to pierce the sky. Although he hadn’t met the lord in person, simply walking through the castle made him feel like a powerful man.
Eighteen years old. As Jason strolled through the beautiful flower garden, savoring the floral scent, he thought:
I’m young, overflowing with talent, and on top of that, I’m strong.
Somewhere out there, an explorer from the Murim had said that true heroes always have three wives and four concubines. Three legitimate wives and four mistresses—what an enviable world. To Jason, who had never even had a girlfriend, it sounded incredibly tempting.
Yes. One day he too would become a famous explorer and have many lovers!
While thinking this and wandering the castle grounds, Jason spotted a girl ahead of him. She had the rare obsidian eyes and hair seldom seen in Cromwell. Her hair was still damp, as if she had just washed it, and she carried a wild, thick scent stronger than any flower.
Above all, her face was beautiful.
It’s not perfume… but where have I smelled this before?
For a moment he recalled the day he had gotten lost in the mountains, rolling around for three days and nights fighting orcs, but he quickly shook his head. There was no way such a beautiful lady would smell like blood. And even if she did, her face was a flower that made any scent irrelevant.
Should I at least greet her?
Jason had never heard the common Murim saying “beware the elderly, children, and women.” He boldly strode toward the girl inside the lord’s castle. That in itself was a hasty decision, but his next actions were even worse.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, then spoke to the girl who was blankly looking up at him in a friendly tone.
“Hey, beautiful lady?”
“?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me?”
“……What?”
The girl’s brow twisted like a vengeful demon.
There were people who could speak casually with each other despite both holding great power. Having successfully obtained the elixir for his son, the explorer guild master Maurice clasped his old friend the lord’s hand and bowed repeatedly.
“Aigoo, thank you, thank you!”
“Between us, there’s no need for such fuss. Now let go of my hand. If you keep shaking it like that, my arm will fall off.”
“Aigoo! We can’t have our lord’s arm falling off. I’ll let go right away.”
“Ahem. Yes, that’s much better.”
They were essentially the No.1 and No.2 of the city of Cromwell, yet as friends and comrades who had spent decades together, they could treat each other without formality.
“So you came with your son?”
“Mm, I thought I’d let him get some fresh air as well.”
The Lord of Cromwell, the city’s supreme authority, naturally knew his friend’s child. After all, the boy had come along to receive an elixir. Still, the lord decided he should at least see the boy’s face and began walking.
As long as he didn’t leave the castle, a brief meeting was possible.
“Is his talent so great that you keep praising him like that?”
“Praising him too much? Well, he is a bit hasty, but when it comes to talent, he’s the best in Cromwell.”
“Hmm, that much?”
“He’s my son, but honestly, learning magic power at that age can only be called genius! He’s probably the strongest among the city’s explorers right now—”
Just as he was proudly boasting about his son while passing through the garden, the guild master Maurice saw a massive figure flying through the air right in front of him. It looked strangely familiar—
“……Huh?”
It was his son.